1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an in-vivo image acquiring apparatus such as a pantoscopic capsule endoscope, a receiving apparatus that receives image data or the like from the in-vivo image acquiring apparatus, and an in-vivo information acquiring system using them.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, capsule endoscopes which are provided with an imaging function and a radio communicating function have appeared in the field of endoscopes. After the capsule endoscope is swallowed by an examinee as a subject from the mouth for observation (examination) and until naturally discharged from a living body (human body) of the examinee, the capsule endoscope moves through insides of organs such as esophagus, stomach, and small intestine (the inside of a body cavity) according to their peristaltic motions, and sequentially picks up images at a predetermined imaging rate using the imaging function.
Image data, which are picked up in the body cavity by the capsule endoscope during the observation period in which the capsule endoscope is moving through the inside of the organs, are sequentially transmitted to the outside of the subject by the radio communicating function, and are accumulated in a memory provided in an external receiver. After the observation, doctors or nurses can make the images of the body cavity displayed on a display unit such as a display based on the image data accumulated in the memory of the receiver to make diagnosis (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-19111).
Generally, the capsule endoscopes as described above are monocular capsule endoscopes which only pick up images of body cavity located in its advancing direction, i.e., at its front side, but in recent years, a pantoscopic capsule endoscope which picks up images on the front and rear sides of the advancing direction is proposed in order to enlarge a visual field at the time of observing esophagus or the like (see U.S. patent application Laid-Open No. 2004/199061). In the pantoscopic capsule endoscope, a plurality of imaging blocks are provided to the front and rear sides of a capsule casing so as to pick up images on the front and rear sides of an advancing direction of the capsule casing in the body cavity. Each of the imaging blocks has a pair of an illuminating unit such as LED which illuminates the inside of a body cavity and an imaging device such as CCD which picks up an image of the inside of the illuminated body cavity.
However, U.S. patent application Laid-Open No. 2004/199061 merely describes that the pantoscopic capsule endoscope has the plurality of imaging devices that pick up images in the front and rear directions, and does not describe transmission control for transmitting the image data and display control at the time of displaying the images. As a result, the advantage of the pantoscopic capsule endoscope is not effectively utilized.